Brignac wins it for Phils with hit in 14th inning

Phillies infielder Reid Brignac, right, slides into second base under Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada to advance on a ball hit by A.J. Burnett during the fourth inning of Friday’s game at Citizens Bank Park. Burnett reached first base and Brignac was safe at second on the throwing error by catcher Travis d’Arnaud. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies have had a long, murderously painful May, most of which was endured on their home diamond.

It seemed fitting that, as the month comes to a disappointing close, they play a long, murderously painful game against the Mets for fourth-place supremacy in the National League East.

At least this one ended well for the Phillies.

After Chris Young graciously opened the bottom of the 14th by dropping a fly ball in right off the bat of Marlon Byrd for a two-base error, Carlos Ruiz singled and an intentional walk set up Reid Brignac to end it. He obliged, driving a walk-off single to deep left field as the Phillies got seven scoreless innings from their beleaguered bullpen and savored a 6-5 victory at Citizens Bank Park after five hours, 23 minutes.

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It was a wild outing for A.J. Burnett, who shuttled between befuddling opposing hitters and his manager. He started his night throwing nine straight strikes and working a powerful top of the first. In the second, 11 of his first 14 pitches were balls, and after walking the first two batters he fell behind 3-0 to Lucas Duda, who got a green light and smoked an RBI double. The Mets plated two more runs on an RBI groundout and a single by Ruben Tejada.

The Phils mounted a comeback, getting on the board in the third when Burnett and Rollins singled and Chase Utley scored Burnett with a RBI grounder.

The inning before, in Dom Brown’s first plate appearance, he grounded out to push his average under the Mendoza Line.

It didn’t stay below .200 long. The struggling left fielder took advantage of a 2-0 fastball after Marlon Byrd walked and Carlos Ruiz singled and hit a towering, three-run homer to right that put the Phillies up, 4-3.

Burnett, however, had one more dip left in his up-and-down outing, as former Phillie Bobby Abreu — who the Phillies cut late in spring training — roped a two-run double in the top of the fifth to put the Mets back on top. The Phils responded by tying it in the bottom of the inning, with Brown rolling an RBI grounder between the legs of Daisuke Matsuzaka.

The score stayed that way for a long, long time.

Burnett allowed five hits and five runs, walking six and striking out 11 in his seven innings of work. That was the first time that pitching line ever had been recorded in a big-league game, which isn’t as easy as it might seem when you consider more than 200,000 games have been played in 138 years.

It was just the fourth time since 2000 that a pitcher had at least 11 strikeouts and six walks in an outing, with former Phillie Brett Myers pulling the same stunt June 19, 2006. Only seven other Phillies in history had 11-plus Ks and six-plus walks in a start.

If you delve into the uniqueness of Burnett’s start more, there were only 21 instances prior to Burnett where a pitcher had struck out at least 11 batters, walked at least six and allowed five or more earned runs in a game. Interestingly, five of those pitching lines belonged to Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan.